Top 14 Greatest Rock Operas/Concept Albums Of All Time

Share.

A list of the essential concept albums that should be included in any good record collection.

By Spence D.

The Rock Opera or conceptual album first came to light in popular music during the late 1960s. Obviously inspired by the sweeping orchestral suites of such composers as Tchaikovsky (The Nutcracker Suite), Mussorgsky (Pictures At An Exhibition), and Berlioz (Symphonie Fantastique), the Rock Opera endeavored to tell a linear story in song form, utilizing a particular band's signature musical stylings and poetic wordplay to create a purely aural theatrical experience. While the Rock Opera/concept Album enjoyed its greatest success during the glory days of classic rock (the late '60s and early-to-mid '70s) it, like the Western in cinematic history, refuses to fade away quietly. Over the years indie rock stalwarts, punk outfits, death metal bands, and dozens of prog rock minded acts have tried their hand at penning a Rock Opera. Some have succeeded; others have succumbed to utter pretension. But one thing remains: the allure of the Rock Opera is still vibrant and if you manage to write a great one, people will embrace it with open arms.

What follows is our short list of great Rock Operas/Concept Albums. The albums were chosen not only for their historical importance within the rock n' roll hierarchy, but also for their longevity, creativity, and basically for just being kick ass records, conceptual or not.

14. Green Day - American Idiot (Reprise Records, 2004) Maybe not the greatest of concept albums/rock operas, but you have to give it up to Billie Joe, Tre Cool, and Mike Dirnt for having the balls to write a politically charged rock opera in 2005. Let's face it, in these ADD riddled times the very notion of a popular band, especially one that is huge with the MTV crowd, sitting down and putting together a linear story in album form is pretty radical. That the fans and critics ate it up in droves is a testament to the group's maturity and elevated thematic songwriting. The legend surrounding the album is now rote, about how the band had written an entire album and then at the 11th hour the master tapes were stolen. Instead of recreating the pilfered album, the band totally scrapped it and cranked out this little ditty instead. That only adds to the overall mystique of the project.

13. The Coolies - Doug ( DB, 1988) Indie rock isn't known so much for delivering the rock opera/conceptual album but The Coolies came clean with 1988's Doug. Here's the nut of the album's story: The 13 songs unveil an incredibly tongue-in-cheek sonic novel about a skinhead who kills a transvestite short-order cook, steals his recipe book, and becomes an overnight celebrity when the cookbook becomes a nationwide best-seller. Since The Coolies were predominantly a group of highly adept musicians reveling in jokester musicality, the entire album is rendered as a tribute to the likes of Gary Glitter, Led Zeppelin, The Who, John Lennon, and other classic rockers. The Coolies took it all to the next level by including a comic book with the album drawn by Jack Logan, who would go on to create his own string of rock operas in the 1990s.

12. Paul Kantner - Blows Against The Empire (RCA, 1970) Best known as one of founders, chief lyricists, singer/songwriter, and rhythm guitarist for seminal Summer of Love San Francisco stalwarts The Jefferson Airplane, Kantner delivered a one-two conceptual punch with Blows Against The Empire and it's much better sequel, 1983's Planet Earth Rock 'N Roll Orchestra (sadly the latter is totally out of print so if you want a copy you're gonna have to start digging through some dusty old record--as in vinyl--shoppes). While the latter is essentially the sequel to the former, it's a much more realized effort that expertly blends elements of sci-fi with more progressive styled rock. As for Blows, given that it was released when Airplane was in their transition to Jefferson Starship (it's actually credited to Paul Kantner & Jefferson Starship, the first use of said moniker), it comes off much more like a folk/rock Airplane album than anything else. The story is pure '60s inspired political sci-fi in that it's about a group of left wingers who steal a government spacecraft and head to the stars to create a new utopia. The album holds the distinction of having been nominated for the prestigious science fiction literary award the Hugo.